Help scouting a new parcel (map attached)

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martyMSU
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Help scouting a new parcel (map attached)

Unread postby martyMSU » Thu Jan 23, 2020 12:48 am

Ok, as I learn how to hunt more in the style of the beast, I'm probably going to post a lot of maps here and ask for help on where to start scouting. Here's my first entry.
The attached map shows a piece of land I've never hunted before. It's approximately 40 acres of public. To get to it you have to walk through 80 acres of pine tree farm on the west. The other directions around the parcel are all ag (corn/soybean fields.) The piece of public has a class 2 trout steam running bordering its west side (dividing it from the pine tree farm.) The north half of the property is tall jackpines, the south side is mixed deciduous. There is no topo variation in this piece or in the surrounding private.
I've never set foot on this ground, but I know it holds deer because I've seen them on the road to the west of the 80 acre pine tree farm. Bordering the south edge of the property is railroad tracks (which is private property owned by the railroad).
Is it too early to scout it now? Should I wait until the snow melts off some? I'm in NW Wisconsin and the snow has been light so far this winter, the drifts are just taller than my knees but it's about 12-18" deep where it's not drifted. What does the beast community think? When I start scouting, where do I start? I've never done post-season/spring scouting before and I'm trying to learn as I put in the work to be more successful deer hunting.
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Seeker529
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Re: Help scouting a new parcel (map attached)

Unread postby Seeker529 » Thu Jan 23, 2020 2:43 am

Its never to early to scout, my scouting begins as soon as I Fill my tags or the seasons done... Im fairly new to this too but i would walk the hard transitions of the trees to fields and the pines to hardwoods.. The creek bottom looks like nice habitat change but if it gets alot of pressure it could push deer off.. I would look for bedding near access points on this expecting a buck to be able to watch and escape if he sees someone but yet ive seen bucks sit like rabbits and watch fishermen.. Pines and hard woods are pretty open under the canopy so along the field edges where it gets a lot of sun the stem count is heavy would be my starting point.. put boots on ground cover these miles and try to fig out why the buck beds there and time frame, food,thermal cover,visibility.. keep us posted
martyMSU
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Jan 19, 2020 8:47 am
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/martin.rosendahl ... =bookmarks
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Re: Help scouting a new parcel (map attached)

Unread postby martyMSU » Thu Jan 23, 2020 6:48 am

Seeker529 wrote:Its never to early to scout, my scouting begins as soon as I Fill my tags or the seasons done... Im fairly new to this too but i would walk the hard transitions of the trees to fields and the pines to hardwoods.. The creek bottom looks like nice habitat change but if it gets alot of pressure it could push deer off.. I would look for bedding near access points on this expecting a buck to be able to watch and escape if he sees someone but yet ive seen bucks sit like rabbits and watch fishermen.. Pines and hard woods are pretty open under the canopy so along the field edges where it gets a lot of sun the stem count is heavy would be my starting point.. put boots on ground cover these miles and try to fig out why the buck beds there and time frame, food,thermal cover,visibility.. keep us posted


Good advice. I like it. Being that it's only a 40 acre parcel, I figure this is a good learning piece for me. I can probably cover the whole thing over 2 weekends and see where the tracks are and where they aren't. But trying to figure out why the tracks are where they are and where they aren't is my true goal that I can hopefully apply to future parcels. Trying to figure out time frame (both in terms of what point in the season and also what point of the day) seems like a daunting challenge to me. But I'm happy to learn and listen to advice on how to figure that out.


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